Candidates face off in 89th House debate

Wednesday

Jul 23, 2014 at 9:36 AM

By Andrea.Goodell@HollandSentinel.com(616) 546-4275

In a rare two-party pre-primary forum, Democrat Don Bergman and Republican Matt Wiedenhoeft, candidates for the 89th Statehouse District, faced off Tuesday night at an Ottawa County Patriots event.Wiedenhoeft will face incumbent Rep. Amanda Price, R-Park Township, at the Aug. 5 primary. Price was out of town and unable to attend Tuesday. The primary winner will face Bergman in November.Price and Wiedenhoeft are to attend the League of Women Voters’ 89th District forum July 30 at Olive Township Hall, 6480 136th Ave.Bergman ran unsuccessfully against Price in the 2012 89th District race.He taught for 20 years, before retiring and starting a home inspection business, and spoke first about his opposition to for-profit charter schools, but said his No. 1 priority is the environment.Wiedenhoeft owns a consulting business and teaches business and management at Davenport University and economics and accounting at Baker College.Each candidate was given the opportunity to ask the other questions. Out of the gate, a surprising similarity emerged when Wiedenhoeft asked Bergman about Common Core, an educational initiative that details what K-12 students should know in English and mathematics at the end of each grade.“You’ve got to let your teachers teach. If you don’t trust your teachers, what are you going to do?” Bergman said, describing Common Core’s requirements as “straitjackets.”“I’m kind of shocked. We agree on this,” Wiedenhoeft said. “Common Core is just bad, It’s bad for the kids; it’s bad for the teachers; it’s bad for the parents.”Asked about the relatively recent crisis of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children crossing the U.S. border showed, perhaps, one of the starkest contrasts between the two.“It’s illegal, so they’ve got to go,” Wiedenhoeft said, adding he would tell the federal government, “It’s not happening in Michigan. … Michigan’s border needs to be closed.”When Bergman said there is a difference between adults who cross the border illegally and children, echos of “no it isn’t” could be heard in the crowd.“How desperate would you have to be to tell your kids ‘go, you have no life here,’” Bergman said. “This is a humanitarian crisis. What kind of people are we? … I don’t think Christ is going to treat kids like that.”The 89th District includes Park Township, north to Spring Lake Township, Olive Township, north to Crockery Township and Blendon Township.— Follow this reporter on Facebook and on Twitter, @SentinelAndrea.